Crash and Learn: 7 Spanish Crash Courses for Learning on the Fast-track
Unless you are Vince Vaughn or Owen Wilson, no one likes a party crasher.
But there is one party you are always welcome to crash: the Spanish learning party.
Whether you take online Spanish courses or in-person lessons, there are some great Spanish crash courses out there to help you hit the ground running.
So if you are looking to learn Spanish quickly, look no further than these seven Spanish crash courses.
Contents
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How to Get the Most from a Spanish Crash Course
Here are three tips for really milking that crash course for all it is worth:
Have reasonable expectations.
While crash courses can give you a good start, you are unlikely to become fluent in just a couple of weeks. Depending on your natural ability and the amount of work you put in, full fluency can take years.
That said, a Spanish crash course can definitely give you the skills you need to start communicating right off the bat.
Just do not be disappointed if you do not learn everything straight away! Expecting too much of yourself can be demotivating and slow down your learning.
Study daily.
Daily study keeps you on the right track and prevents backsliding.
If you study a lot one day and then skip a few days, you might forget some of what you learned. If you study daily, though, you are less likely to forget information, enabling you to learn Spanish faster.
Give the course as much attention as possible.
Putting in extra effort can help yield more tangible results. When you want to learn Spanish quickly, it is important to remember that you get out of a course as much as you put in.
If you study for five minutes a day while watching TV, you are not likely to get as much out of the course as if you study for an hour and give the material your full focus.
So give it your all and enjoy the burst of learning!
7 Spanish Crash Courses for Quick and Easy Learning
Online Spanish Crash Courses
Spanish for Beginners: Spanish Crash Course
Designed to help complete beginners get a firm grasp of basic Spanish, this Udemy course is a great primer for anyone looking to learn Spanish.
The course focuses on common, useful topics like greetings, polite words/phrases, travel vocabulary, days of the week, months of the year and more. Plus, the instructor has a Colombian accent, which many Spanish students find easier to understand than other pronunciations.
This course is brief: There is just one hour of video and four accompanying articles. However, if you want to learn some Spanish quickly for travel or to test the waters and see if you want to study Spanish on a more long-term basis, this is a good option.
At the time of this writing, the course is free to take, but Udemy prices are subject to change. And while you are there, check out Udemy for thousands of other affordable lessons, including some other useful Spanish-learning courses!
FluentU
FluentU is a language learning program that combines bite-sized authentic Spanish videos with tools to learn vocabulary and grammar naturally. The video library consists of high-quality, native content, like movie clips, vlogs, news segments, commercials and other media that native Spanish speakers actually watch.
Each video comes with interactive subtitles that help you learn formal and informal Spanish in context. The captions provide instant word translations, grammar information, audio pronunciation, example sentences and clips from additional videos that have the word. Any vocabulary you want to learn can be saved as multimedia flashcards that you can customize into decks.
Since the entire video library is organized by difficulty level, topic and format, you can easily find the content that suits your needs and interests. The clips are short so you can watch and learn at your pace.
Review material with personalized quizzes that use spaced repetition to boost your memorization. Questions can be answered with voice or written input, so you can practice both your speaking and writing skills.
“Essential Spanish in 2 Hours”
This resource is an audio course designed by Paul Noble to teach complete beginners the basics of Spanish in just two hours.
Why two hours? Well, if you are on a plane travelling to an exciting, exotic Spanish-speaking locale, you should be able to complete the course before you land—perfect for travelers who want to take a Spanish crash course in order to communicate more clearly.
The course focuses on essential travel phrases that you might use at hotels, restaurants, museums and more.
While you can just learn with the audio, there is also a downloadable booklet to give you extra learning support.
In 24 Hours Learn Spanish (iOS | Android)
This handy app aims to help you learn basic Spanish in just 24 painless hours.
There are 24 lessons that cover essential topics like basic phrases, numbers, common words, questions and more. It is appropriate for travelers, students or anyone else who is interested in learning the Spanish language.
The app focuses on audiovisual learning: Words and their translations appear on the screen and you can click any word to hear it spoken. However, you can also use the audio hands-free and just play through the whole lesson, allowing you to listen and learn while you drive, exercise, shower or cook.
In-person Spanish Crash Courses
Academia Tica
Academia Tica (Tica Academy) offers an in-person crash course in traveler’s survival Spanish. If you are looking for a good excuse to travel to Costa Rica, this is your chance!
The crash course aims to provide the cultural skills and basic Spanish knowledge that students need to enjoy Costa Rica.
Courses last about four hours each and are offered in the morning or afternoon. You can take the course for one day or for up to five days. The lessons cover essential Spanish, including vocabulary related to transportation, shopping, socializing, eating out and more.
Expanish
Wish you could take a break from your crash course and relax on a beach in Barcelona? Would you rather wind down after a hard day of studying by tangoing in Buenos Aires? Then you might consider Expanish’s crash courses, which are held in (surprise, surprise!) Buenos Aires and Barcelona.
Both crash courses focus on survival Spanish and are taught on an individual basis (though in Buenos Aires, you can also come with a small group of friends), putting the focus exclusively on your skills.
Modules are two hours each, allowing you to customize how long you want your crash course to be. You can take just one module or up to five at a time for more in-depth study.
Additionally, the courses include language specific to local tourism, giving you the vocabulary you need to enjoy your trip.
Vamos Spanish
Vamos Spanish (Let’s Go Spanish) offers in-person crash courses for complete beginners.
Located in Buenos Aires, the course is designed to teach learners the common words and phrases needed for travel, like greetings, asking for directions, telling time and more.
The course does not include any complicated grammar rules to get in the way, instead focusing on knowledge you can use right away.
Three-hour crash courses are available on weekdays, and class size is six students or less. However, since the course is offered on an “on demand” basis, you will need to book ahead.
So go ahead and crash into Spanish learning. You will be the life of the party in no time!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
